Decent custard

Is there any decent custard to be found in the UK. I am wont to say, that England is not a land of choice, back home, there is Moirs custard powder. And even I can make it up, all it takes is approximate measuring with a spoon, and 2 short mugs of milk, and off you go on the stove. The fact that the only brand on some shelves in the UK is Birds (no offence) is probably due to age. And something is wrong whan all you do is add boiling water! what next, girlfriend in a tin?
Admittedly the fastest custard is the pour out of a box variety, which comes in a few flavours and only 2 brands in RSA and is the best for parties where time is a factor, since good custard does take time. It actually depends on how your guests like pud; straight after the main feast, or served once everyone has migrated into the lounge and comfy with something liquid in the hand already.

But tonight we will try making Birds with real milk, because personally the way the english like their custard, it may as well be luke-warm sludge. Custard must skin on top (my fave bits) and leave you feeling warm inside (vanilla). Enough rant, if I get it right, the correct instructions will follow.

So mom, when you come visit from RSA, bring the Moirs!

Space
I thought I needed tonnes of space to live in before I came over, only to discover, we have 2 largely unused and empty rooms after staying in our Garden City semo for almost a month now. We have a really cool landlord, who is hugely oppologetic about the old mail that still comes to this address, I think it's great, because it means he has to come around and say hi every so often and see if the place has caved in or not while collecting mail. Happiness is.

Interview Tactic

1. Be nervous, it actually keeps you sharp.
   
2. Knowing that you are nervous make you more nervous, this makes all sorts of drugs flow through your veins, these drugs which are totally natural, making you even more sharp.
   
3. OK so you get stoked, now just control it and answer the questions dammit!
   
4. Long answers will screw you....
   

Actually I've not gotten the answers that count for everyone, consequently I never bought a book on how to find work in the UK, consequently I had to leanr all the tricks from scratch, consequently I battled. Battled big-time. But if you miss the mark, you just persevere, luck will smile on you sometime.
WOW I got an offer. Strangley the one job I though would be the most dificult to get in was started and over bar the shouting (me elated) in 5 odd hours. I had 3 other positions so close to clinched I was wondering how to choose, and then the embedded role I had been eyeing since I laded just happenend.

Well no this is one stoked dude, I just can't wait to get my Symbian T-shirt now.

Different is good

finally started drizzling, nice and miserable out today, I can do this... Well complaining about the sunshine and you get drizzle just to test your wits:-) I still have no clue why the huge busses roam around half empty all day, and why contractors cannot effectively use small busses?
There are lots of older retired folk out and about in the day here. Lots of people seem to know each other, not surpizing, this is not a huge town at all. nice and quaint really, the downside is that the shops close between 5 and 6:30 in the afternoon, and by 7pm the city center is deserted.

Having fun fixing little things around the house, I must say things are a little easier, but you still get lots of poorly finnished work regardless. Can't wait till all our junk arrives from RSA.

Got Greg's attention here, Rhys is too busy watching the tiny telly.


Rhys loves playing inside all sorts of things, this time it's the washbasket that is going to retire early from wear-and-tear.


Some of the cute little pixie homes growing in the hallway when we opened up after 6 months.


Our little pixie sleeping in the large wheelie suitcase at Ross and Carron's place

Really bigger (distance to an exit)

Bigger and smaller all at the same time. London has a big 'Orbital', first impression is that it works pretty much the same as the 'concrete-highway' in Johannesburg. Big diference is the Orbital is about 20 times longer.
One road marking that still grabs me is the distance to the next exit. I reset the odometer, and then about halfway (since resetting) there I get signs saying that something like what I want is 15m to go. So I think, huh, it's supposed to be another 4 miles to go, and then suddenly the exit is there, wham! I think my odometer is marked in km not miles sometimes but it measures the distance between small towns just fine.
I could write a book on small nuances of change/difference, but each tiny question I have is something comming from my own experiences. We all experience the universe from different viewpoints, wheter we like it or not. Some folk choose to adopt the viewpoint of another from as far possible, ... but different is good.
Take gas for instance, without someone showing you how the boiler settings work, and then you setting to work it out for yourself, you can never internalize. You could ignore the problem (I have partially) and freeze to death in the winter, or go find a manual (hands up all those who save manuals LOL).

I will figure the central heating settings out when the gasman arrives, for now it is disabled, safer. Smoke detectors everywhere, in fact if you like your toast with a layer of black, or your bacon rinds really crunchy in the morning, be prepared for some small surprises. Weather: I never figured it could actually reach 30 degrees, and it gets too hot to bear for about 6 weeks of the year. (Almost no rain either).

Very friendly people, and I mean very. That's the thing that brought me here in fact. I know the LSD trip 6 years ago was only a 10-day holiday, and it was just a holiday, to kind of give us a real honeymoon together and away from it all holiday. (LSD=look see decide); I loved the people then and I still do, oh and everyone is much more ready to help once you have toddlers, I ever have some folk cary the stroller down a whole flight of stairs including child. There are some rude people, but they are the exception. On the flipside, there are also many folk who quite happily want nothing to do with anyone, and carefully ignore you. I suspect they all go home and once the door closes, they finally relax into their own little comfort zones. And creating a comfort-zone is really a necessity.

It will come. But untill then, I am having a great time in England.